tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Aug 23 06:56:47 1993

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relative clauses?



[email protected] (Jacques Guy) wrote on Mon, 23 Aug 1993 10:33:53 +1000 (EST)
(Subject: relative clauses?) (summarized):-

qIppu'bogh yaS vIlegh    I see the officer who hit him/her
yaS qIppu'bogh vIlegh    I see the officer whom he hit
qIppu'(bogh) yas               the officer (who) hit him
yaS qIppu'(bogh)               the officer (who) he hit
yaS qIppu'(bogh) puq     the child (who) hit the officer   <or>    (1)
                         the officer (who) was hit by the child
  [He tried] "the child hit the officer, I see the/that child" =
`yaS qIppu' puq, puq<*> vIlegh` ...
  [What about] "the torpedo with which we destroyed the spaceship"?   (2)

  I suppose that `Duj wIQaw'pu'bogh penglo'` (if `lo'` = "use" (noun & verb)
can be used as an instrumental suffix) is any of:-
    the torpedo with which we destroyed the ship
    the ship which we destroyed with the/a torpedo
    we who destroyed the ship with a/the torpedo
  I have seen a suggestion to put `'e'` after the antecedent (= the word which
in English would have "who/which" after it); but that, and another idea with
`'e'`, cause ambiguity with existing uses of `'e'`. In the final analysis we
need Marc Okrand to define:-
  (1) A new particle, say `'i'`, to mark the antecedent.
  (2) A new verb suffix, say Y, to swop subject and object: `A X B` = `B XY A`
so that the relative clause can for greater clarity be put at one end of the
main clause instead of inside it.



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